


Riz Fails A Panic Attack Save

by Alistair_Seacaster



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: But chapter one feels more in character to me, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, This is all honestly pure self indulgence I wrote 2 months ago, fabian/Riz if you squint, i do have more of this written but this bit ends nicely, i don't know what else to really tag this as?, so there may be a chapter 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26474080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alistair_Seacaster/pseuds/Alistair_Seacaster
Summary: Riz fails a panic attack save in a hotel along the Baronies border, Fabian stays the night with him in the Hangvan, they have a heart to heart.
Relationships: Riz Gukgak & Fabian Aramais Seacaster, The Bad Kids & The Bad Kids (Dimension 20)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	Riz Fails A Panic Attack Save

**Author's Note:**

> I started wondering if the Bad Kids would ever goes to the Baronies, and then I wondered if Brennan would dare to have them all share the same accent as Baron, and that led to me wondering how Riz would react to that.

Fabian was leaning against a pillar of the large hotel as the Hangvan rolled into the parking lot, having gotten here much earlier via Hangman. He had already gotten their room set up and payed for. After spring break, he honestly didn't want to sleep in the van just yet so he had practically demanded they be in a hotel for at least the first night in the Baronies after the all day travel.

Fabian made his way over the parking spot as everyone piled out. Kristen was bickering on the phone with Tracker about who should hang up first, Riz and Adaine were talking all about the latest episodes of their podcasts, Fig was on the phone with Ayda and trying to talk her away from teleporting to her half heartedly, all while Gorgug was finishing a chat with the Hangvan. 

"Finally you are all here! Lets get all our stuff and order room service," Fabian reached into the open door of the van and pulled out his backpack, "I got us a nice suite so we are good to get some rest before we go on the road again,"

"I still don't understand why we couldn't just go all night in the van, Fig has her license now. They could've taken shifts," Adaine mage handed her bag to herself, Kristen's bag to her, all while giving Boggy a few scratches on his round belly.

"Yeah, I honestly don't want to make any unneeded stops," Riz felt something anxious pulling at his brain and heart, he couldn't place it and he didn't look into it as he shifted his briefcase between his hands.

"I dunno guys, I'm with Fabian," Kristen had finally gotten off the phone with Tracker, "Getting just one last good sleep, in good beds, will be good for us! Being just thrown into these adventures without the proper mental prep just isn't a good idea,"

"Yeah! We can have a pillow fight," Fig slung her bass across her back and grabbed her duffel bag.

"Last time we had a pillow fight I hit Kristen too hard, she had to cure wounds her tooth back," Gorgug tapped the van so Zaphriel would lock the doors once he got his own bag out. 

"We can work out what we'll do in our room once we're there, now cmon lets get you guys each your own key," Fabian started leading the way. 

They found their way inside the hotel, it was nice. It was ornamental and there was rooms for things like conferences and free breakfast in the morning. Kristen was quick to start touching almost everything on the receptionist desk, from pens to business cards.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The receptionist had a think Baronesian accent, with forcefully wide smile as they worked in night shift hotel customer service.

While Fabian started talking to the receptionist, Riz felt himself go stiff. His eyes went thin and his breath quickened, by the time he realized this was why being in the Baronies made him anxious it was too late. He no longer felt safe, in a beautiful Baronesian hotel lobby. He felt terrified, like he was in a mirror dimension with faint bony fingers running against his neck with a too familiar laugh behind him.

As everyone was talking amongst themselves, Gorgug noticed how Riz on edge Riz was looking, "Guys, I think Riz saw something bad," He reached to place a hand on his axe handle, trying to find whatever bad sign that caused Riz to go into fight or flight mode.

As everyone instantly went on edge, Adaine whipped around to cover Kristen's back side, she saw Riz and instantly softened, "Guys, I'm getting Riz out, meet us at the van," She grabbed Riz by the shoulders, a hand wrapping around the handle of the sword of shadows and misty stepping them both out the front door.

The action sent Riz into fight mode, struggling against Adaine's grip and stumbling into the parking lot as she started herding him towards the van with everyone else hot on their heels. 

As Adaine managed to sit Riz on the bumper and gave him Boggy, Fabian was the first to talk, "What the fuck was going on in their, The Ball?"

"Fabian I need you to shut up for two minutes, Riz is having a panic attack. A bad one," Adaine squeezed Riz's shoulders in an attempt to ground him enough to get him to hear her words, "Riz, Riz cmon. In for eight, hold for four, and out for seven,"

Riz's eyes dilated some as he did his best to follow the instructions, but he was quicker to shove Adaine's hands away from his shoulders. He wrapped his own arms around himself, leaving Boggy in his lap as his claws roughly dug into his own arms.

"Ok, you're doing great Riz," Adaine got the gist of it being a no touch situation, and instead used her hands to pull a bottle of water out of her jacket all while keeping up the breathing, "I don't know what triggered it, but it sent him straight to somewhere bad for a minute,"

While Adaine ran through breathing exercises with Riz, everyone else tried to help in thier own ways. Fig started strumming her countercharm as she chewed on her lip, she didn't really know what else to do. Kristen sat next to Riz on the bumper, casting light on her staff to let those without dark vision see. Gorgug gripped his axe and stood guard, in case anyone took advantage of this. Fabian paced around the van, eventually tugging tugging off his jacket and putting it around Riz to hopefully stop him from clawing at his own skin.

Riz clutched at the jacket and focused on the positive noises around him as he started to really take deep breaths, finally feeling his jaw loosen enough to speak, "I I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me,"

"Are you ok?" Adaine handed him the bottle of water. 

"I'm better," Riz opened the water and chugged a lot of it, "We can we can go in now," 

"Nuh uh, no way The Ball," Fabian stopped pacing in front of Riz, crossing his arms, "Not until you tell us what was wrong so we can fix it,"

"Yeah! We're stronger together, just tell us and we can all take care of it," Gorgug was the one pacing now, keeping himself on edge in case he needs to go into a rage. 

Kristen didn't say anything, instead she reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. He felt the power of greater restoration enter him, an expensive comfort Kristen had started when she could spare the spells.

"Whoever it is I'll fucking shred them to pieces, no one hurts any of you and gets away with it," The softer melody of Fig's counter charm took on a few harsh notes.

"It was the accent," Riz said the words quick as he brought his legs up to join him on the bumper, careful to not let the jacket slip off shoulders, "We are...in the Baronies, Baron was...from here. So Baron had the accent and I wasn't expecting it and it really scared me,"

A wave of realization hit all of them. Of course being the Baronies could cause something like that, they all feel a little disappointed in themselves for not figuring out out before. As they all relaxed, they started sharing looks to try and figure out what was best for Riz in this moment.

"Riz if you want to stay in the van tonight I don't mind staying with you," Kristen drummed her fingers against the bumper.

Everyone started speaking over each other to repeat the same sentiment, but Riz didn't like all the attention on him, "I'm ok to go in, it's not gonna be a surprise to hear it again,"

"We're not going to settle for you being less affected, if you don't pick who's staying by your side we'll pick for you," Fig shut down Riz sacrificing his own piece of mind to be less trouble.

Riz searched for a way out of this, the right words to say to twist him into being perfectly ok, but Fabian, as the ever impatient boy he is, decided he was taking too long, "Alright it's decided, I'll stay with our Ball until we take off tomorrow, bring us some waffles in the morning,"

"Fabian you're the one who wanted to go to this hotel, you don't need to babysit me," Riz finished the water and tugged the jacket tighter around himself in an attempt to hide from this situation.

"It won't be babysitting," Fabian started to wave off the other party members by handing them his keycard, despite their wariness to leave, "We'll be fine on our own guys,"

After small hugs and Riz refusing to keep Boggy for the night, everyone slowly left him and Fabian alone in the parking lot. They started to clamber into the Hangvan once the light of Kristen's staff of doubt had fully left. 

They had managed to get comfortable in the very back seat, not quite diving into the pocket dimensions of blankets yet. Riz sat still and quietly for a moment as he curled up in the rightmost seat, taking a few more deep breaths to try and beat down the anxiety back to its smaller, ever present, form. He shrugged the jacket off his shoulders and tossed it over to Fabian, who was in the leftmost seat, as he was digging his laptop out from his bag.

"You don't have to give it back," Fabian held the jacket up and out in his hand in case Riz did want to keep it.

"It's so big on my it's basically just a weirdly shaped blanket, if I need anything I'll just use a blanket," Riz shifted and leaned against the window as he pulled his knees to his chest.

"Alright The Ball," Fabian sat the jacket down to still be in Riz's reach and logged into his laptop, "What would you like to watch tonight?"

"You can pick," Riz rubbed his eyes some, noting the dried tear tracks he didn't even know he had.

Fabian picked a show he knew Riz liked and sat his laptop somewhere they could both see it. He scooted himself to the middle seat, still giving Riz space while doing his best to be a comforting presence. A couple episodes into the show, Riz sat in the seat normally, the jacket having found its way balled in his lap.

"Why are you doing this?" Riz's hands were pressed into the jacket on his lap, picking at a loose thread.

"Doing what?" Fabian turned to face Riz instead of the computer screen.

"Staying with me," Riz took a deep breath as he felt his breathing want to go erratic, "You're the one who wanted to stay in a hotel. Why are you staying with me in the van instead of enjoying that?"

"There's a few reasons," Fabian took a second to pick which one to say first, "One of the reasons I wanted us to stay in a hotel was so all my friends would get a good nights sleep. The best way for me to ensure this happens is to make sure they enjoy the room, and that you aren't alone,"

Riz didn't interject anything so Fabian continued, "Another is that you did the same for me on one of the worst nights of my life. Instead of sleeping in a bed after days of sleeping in a vanboat on the ocean, you curled up in a chair next to my bed with your weapons drawn to try and protect me,"

"I didn't do a very good job," The first words were mumbled, "That was different Fabian, that was real danger, this isn't real danger. You're all my best friends, I would do it for any of you,"

Fabian put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed some, "And we would do it for you. So just let me stay with you this time, because we all look out for each other. You don't have to look out for yourself anymore,"

Riz started to curl in on himself again, bordering on hugging the jacket as he pulled it closer, "...when did you get so caring?"

Fabian let out half a laugh as he slung an arm around Riz, pulling him into his side, "I almost lost too many of you over spring break on top of losing myself, and if I did lose any of you, I'm not sure if you guys would've known I truly did care about you. So I'm working on making sure you know,"

"We all know Fabian, you don't have to worry about that," Riz partially scrambled to sit up next to Fabian properly, "At least I know, cause you're my best friend," 

"...You're mine too Riz," Fabian said the words softly and carefully, he knew had never acknowledged it before so this was a big step.

Everything about that sentence shocked Riz, from his name being said to the acknowledgement of best friend status. He suddenly remembered the pair of necklaces buried deep in his briefcase of holding, he had got them when he was running off 2 hours of sleep for over 24 hours when Fabian's birthday had been just around the corner. He did not have the guts to give it to Fabian once he got an ounce of sleep, so his remained around his neck until his friends noticed and promptly made fun of it. Since then, they've been tangled together in the infinite dimension of his briefcase and if anyone asks they're a Winter Solstice gift.

"What's that face for?" Fabian tilted his head some, hoping he didn't end up overstepping a boundary.

"Usually you only say my name in life or death situations," Riz's hand had curled close to his own heart where his half of the necklace used to sit, "And you've never even said anything like me being your best friend,"

"...like I said, I'm working on that sorta thing," Fabian turned his attention back to the show they never paused, Riz following suit.

They never bothered crawling into the blanket dimensions, partially because it seemed like Riz didn't ever get tired until he had already fallen asleep against Fabian's side. When Fabian noticed, he moved carefully to take the jacket from Riz's lap and slip it onto him. He eventually pulled a blanket from the spots between cushioned and wrapped them around himself as he fell asleep.


End file.
